Misc
ksharpe | August 28, 2006It's not easy keeping track of all the ScienceBlogs. Take four dozen witty and prolific science writers, some of whom post more than once a day, spread them out across a wide range of disciplines and sub-specialties, and what you'll have yourself is a big, tangly embarrassment of riches.
What's a newcomer to do? In the interest of cleaving order from madness, I'm putting together a complete Blog Index. Over the following days, I'll be posting a short description of every blog, a handful at a time. But I'll start by giving you this complete listing of blogs by category. Though bloggers…
ksharpe | August 26, 2006
What's your name?
Josh Rosenau
What do you do when you're not blogging?
I write my thesis. Sometimes there's some insect collecting, some photography, or some cooking.
What is your blog called?
Thoughts from Kansas.
What's up with that name?
Good question! It started out as a placeholder, but it has come to define an aspiration.
How long have you been blogging, anyway?
About two years. The first post at the old TfK was on August 1, 2004.
Where are you from and where do you live now?
I was born in Chicago, and went to college there, but in between I mostly grew up in the New York area.…
ksharpe | August 25, 2006"Friday cat blogging," or the practice of posting something light-hearted and whimsical, is an end-of-week tradition in the blog world.
While no one at Sb regularly puts up pictures of their furry pets, many of the ScienceBloggers do post weekly features on Friday.
What follows is my attempt to orchestrate a complete guided tour of Fridays at ScienceBlogs.
Phylogeny Friday at Evolgen
"Phylogeny Friday is back, bitches! In the glorious return of PhyFridays, I give you the root of the tree of life. In the upcoming editions we'll zoom in on a few parts of the tree to illustrate the diversity…
ksharpe | August 24, 2006"Zuska" is the kick-ass alter ego of Suzanne E. Franks, a chronically educated, unfailingly feminist commentator who has the distinction of holding both a Ph.D. in biomedical engineering, and a graduate certificate in womens' studies.
Thus Spake Zuska has moved from its old home, here, to its new space on ScienceBlogs. Here's what Zuska has to say about herself:
Zuska, Goddess of Science, Empress of Engineering, and Avenging Angel of Angry Women, will tell you what everyone is thinking but is afraid to say.
I offer the web's most excellent and informative rants on the intransigent refusal of…
apalazzo | August 24, 2006Just an update for those who know me. This past week has been a little crazy. We just bought our first car (my wife needs it for her new job). Having lived close to 10 years in Manhattan and then downtown Boston, we never really needed a car and probably saved quite a bit by never owning one. But I guess it was inevitable.
So what did we buy?
At first we checked out Craig's List. You can find superb deals there, however the condition and state of the car + reliability of the seller is always in doubt. A friend of mine went through the car listings on Craig's List, only to find out that many…
ksharpe | August 22, 2006ScienceBlogs' Dr. Charles hosts the 100th edition of the venerable weekly medical blog carnival, Grand Rounds, at The Examining Room or Dr. Charles.
From the introduction:
Grand Rounds Turns 100! Originally conceived by Dr. Nicholas Genes, the weekly linkfest celebrating the highlights of the medical blogosphere has reached its 100th edition. Intended to introduce the wider world to the growing medical blogosphere (doctors, nurses, students, administrators, EMTs, techs, and patients who blog), Grand Rounds has blossomed into a phenomenon noticed by The LA Times, Web MD, and Instapundit to…
ksharpe | August 21, 2006Thoughts From Kansas is a blog by Josh Rosenau, who is not a native Kansan but a graduate student finishing up his dissertation in ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Kansas. He has blogged a great deal about politics, especially the politics of science education, in his state of residence. As Josh writes in his introductory post:
My research is on the spatial distributions of species, and the ways that competition can restrict species from utilizing all the areas they could potentially occupy. Along the way I've spent a lot of time learning about ways that people predict…
ksharpe | August 21, 2006Read 'em while they're hot!
"A question for neuroscientists: getting nowhere fast"
Kevin Beck at Doc Bushwell's Chimpanzee Refuge has a question for the neurologically informed: why does running on a treadmill immediately before running outdoors, make Kevin feel like he's "running on the moon (at least in terms of how I imagine this would feel), with the ground seeming to scroll beneath me at a rate discordant with my actual forward speed."
"The Synapse #5"
From Retrospectacle: "Welcome to the 5th edition of The Synapse, ScienceBlog's home-grown carnival on all things Neuro! Glad to see…
ksharpe | August 20, 2006The destruction of the rainforest was a hot-button topic in the early '90s, but I haven't heard anything about it in ages. Are the rainforests still being destroyed wholesale? Are they all gone? Is it still important? Is the coffee I drink making it worse, and is "free trade" and/or "shade grown" coffee any better?
apalazzo | August 20, 2006What decade are we in? I've always wondered, are we the in the Zeros'?
The study of Biology is a cross between Occam's Razor and Murphy's Laws.
"I don't believe in evolution" is like saying "I don't believe in algebra".
Evolution is like the free market, intelligent design is communism.
(PS Inspired by this, but not playing by the rules ... i.e. quotes were generated by me in a drunken state)
stoat | August 19, 2006I'm off on holiday soon, for a bit...
[Back from hols. Thanks for all the comments... -W]
stoat | August 18, 2006A week (?) ago I wrote a post called "Liquid terror in the skies" but it got eaten by weasels. Since then the usual lack of supporting evidence has not appeared, and today we have a paper bomb causing a plane to be diverted. One voice of sanity amongst the over reaction seems to be Ryanair, although of course they have a strong commercial interest in saying so.
The paper bomb reminds me very much of a Len Deighton short story - from "Declarations of War" - about a war gaming, when one side occupies a country house; a gardner is let in carrying some flowers, which turn out to contain the word…
ksharpe | August 17, 2006The "Proust Questionnaire" refers to a nineteenth-century parlor game involving a list of personal questions about the respondent's values and preferences, to be answered in rapid-fire succession. Marcel Proust didn't invent it, but he may be the most famous person ever to have played. These days, a certain venerable magazine prints an adapted version of the question-and-answer game in their back pages each month. And now we, in turn, have shamelessly re-adapted the well-known Q & A for the purpose of introducing you, dear reader, to the personalities behind the blogs here at Sb.
This…
stoat | August 16, 2006Or, why public transport will never be popular.
Although in fact the only reason I'm writing this is because the train was crowded so I had no choice about where to sit, so it *is* popular.
The story: I'm travelling back from Norwich to Cambridge, and sit in the only available seat, opposite two sweet looking little old ladies. Who talk *constantly* on the 1:20 h journey back. And I do mean it... its as if they were afraid of silence, or of the possibility of thought... and (just like the yoof of today are supposed to) most sentences had "bloody" in them. They talked about... the bankruptcy (…
ksharpe | August 14, 2006Not only is it a temperate, low-humidity day in New York City, but it's a beautiful day in cyberspace as well, because today ScienceBlogs has welcomed the 48th member of its community of blogs.
The Scientific Indian, written by Selva, won "Best Science/Technology Indiblog" in the Indibloggies awards of 2005. The blog's tagline is "Science as a Way of Life." Writes Selva,
I make my living writing software. For personal enjoyment I read science and experiment with it as a way of life. But I am not a scientist. That puts me in the convenient disposition where I can talk science and blame my…
apalazzo | August 14, 2006GpppGACUCAUAUUUCUAUUUCAUGUCGUGCUCCUAGCCGCCAUGGCUAAUUA
UAUGGCUUAUCAUGCUGUUGAAUCUGAAGAAAAUACUCAUAUUUCUCAUGA
ACGUGAAAUCAGGUAGGCAUCACACACGAUUAACAACCCCUAAAAAUACA
CUUUGAAAAUAUUGAAAAUAUGUUUUUGUAUACAUUUUUGAUAUUUUCAAACA
AUACGCAGUUAUAAAACUCAUUAGCUAACCCAUUUUUUUCUUUGCUUAUGCUUA
CAGUAUGUAUGUUGAACGUUCUAACCCUCUUGAAGCUUCUGAACGUGAACCU
CUUUAUUGGAUUACUCAUGCUACUCGUGCUAAUUCUUGUCGUAUUCCUACUACU
CAUGCUAAUAAAUCUUAAACUCAUGAAGAAAAUGAUUAUAUAAAAGAAUC
UAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
ksharpe | August 14, 2006
"Smacking down more lies about Plan B"
"It's really not that hard to understand, but what's blocking acceptance are the amazing lies people say about Plan B emergency contraception." PZ sets it straight, here.
"The real Heathrow story...."
From A Blog Around the Clock: "Shakes has the quickest, clearest summary (with good additional links) about what happened at Heathrow last week, how media lied to you yet again, and who picked the timing and why."
"HIV and responsible journalism"
Tara Smith of Aetiology: "If I could have been at this week's conference for one session, it would have been…
bwolin | August 12, 2006A few tender morsels of readability to get your weekend started out right:
"Creationist Turkey should not be let into the EU!"
"The headline says, Evolution Less Accepted in U.S. Than Other Western Countries, Study Finds, but here is the money shot: 'The only country included in the study where adults were more likely than Americans to reject evolution was Turkey.'"
"A day at the Stevens County Fair"
PZ goes to the county fair and posts his pictures so you can vicariously experience every display there! From beasts to vegetables to a big blue machine which may or may not be a Swine Fecal…
ksharpe | August 11, 2006From a working journalist's perspective on the ground in Toronto, to a bench scientist's appraisal of the hottest research abstracts, three bloggers deliver running commentary on the 16th International AIDS Conference.
As part of Seed's exclusive coverage of the 25th anniversary of the beginning of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, ScienceBlogs is hosting a special, short-term blog dedicated to the International AIDS Conference in Toronto. The Conference runs from August 13th-18th, and the blog will be up from now until Monday the 21st. Check in for daily updates from two Seed journalists in Toronto,…